Pursuing it with eager feet / Until it joins some larger way

Why I’m considering a VW GTI

I love driving my wife’s Sportwagen. I want my own, actually, but she said no. She gets the mommy car, I get the daddy car. But I like the way it drives. It’s fun and zippy, but also comfortable. I borrowed it a couple times this week to drive to work and I told her it was relaxing, an “oasis” of a commute in the midst of stressful times.

Most of my driving these days is a short, surface-street commute, ending in tight, downtown parking. But what you drive on such a short trip can do a lot to set the mood of the rest of the day. I like the feel of driving small sports cars, like my Dad’s Miata. It turns the commute into an adventure. And I love driving a stick because the extra control puts you deeper into the driving experience. I gladly traded in my compact pickup for a family car. And when I imagine a 4-door GTI… I’m thinking there’s plenty of room to pack a quiverfull of kids in there and take them out for a joyride!

Every time I see a VW MkV Golf GTI driving around town or pulling up to a coffee stand I give it a long gaze. But why would I want such a little car?

It’s things like this:

I’d take the GTI above all others. It is so much fun to drive that I actually laughed out loud; it’s one of those rare cars that switches on the “blimey, this is what driving is all about” light bulb in your head. Which leads me to stake my professional integrity to the keyboard, and write the following: this new Golf GTI could well be the answer to the question every motoring journalist hates being asked: if you could have any car, what would it be?

It could be the answer, because it’s so many cars: family load lugger, urban commuter, sports car, icon. Winner. (From a review of the MkVI on the Telegraph).